Chicago-based Strategic Hotels & Resorts has paid a sum of around $375 million to acquire Jumeirah Essex House, on Central Park South in New York. The property had previously belonged to Strategic before being sold to Dubai for $423.9 million in 2005. Since then the hotel has undergone a $90 million renovation and a number of rooms were converted into apartments which were then sold. Dubai Investment Group put the 509-room property on the market in March this year. Loews Hotels & Resorts was also in talks with Dubai to acquire the hotel, but earlier this month dropped out of the bidding.Strategic, under Laurence Geller, has a portfolio of 17 luxury hotels including the Fairmont Chicago, the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco and the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. The group recently published its second quarter results showing a 19.8 percent increase in comparable EBITDA and a RevPAR increase of 8.9 percent.